Carnevale

Everyone of course knows Venice’s Carnevale, but the celebration is all over Italy. Today I played with my new lens and took pictures of confetti stuck in the cobblestones of Piazza Madonna dei Monti. The confetti has been there for weeks, and I’ve seen children dressed in costume for the past few weekends. Next weekend there will be lots of parties, both privately and in clubs, with people dressing in costume. As opposed to Venice where the tradition is of the fancy commedia dell’arte inspired dress, in Rome it’s kind of like Halloween (minus the witches and vampires of course). When I first moved to Rome I taught English in an Italian elementary school and during Carnevale I remember all the little girls dressed like princesses. My favorite part of this time of year are the delicious pastries that will be out until Easter. Every region has their own specialities, but in Rome you’ll find delicious frappe and my favorite, castagnole.

Ehy I really did not know.. in English you say “confetti” for “coriandoli”… ah ah you know in italian “confetti” means “sugared almonds”… too strange! By the way, many masks here are also about Cartoon Heroes : Batman, Superman, Zorro, Hulk, Spiderman, or we have an almost forgotten list of popular masks representing different cities and regions, Naples has Pulcinella, Rome has many, one could be Rugantino (A sort of bully but with a good heart), then around Italy there are Arlecchino (Arlequin), Pantalone etc etc,they are dozens, each one represents a class of people in different cities regions and times.

There are some delicious looking frappe partly covered in chocolate in an alimentari on via Cavour (on the corner of via dell’Agnello, not far from the Metro stop). I’ve resisted them so far, but that probably won’t last.

3mendo – Great, you’ve learned a new word (and so have I, as I didn’t realized confetti meant sugared almonds in Italian). Yes, the Pulcinella, Arlecchino, etc are the costumes that come from commedia dell’arte, no? I love how they all signify different regions of Italy. You are very right about super hero costumes, I’d forgotten about them!